Trade Statistics of the Zollverein, 1834-1871

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the fact that the lack of useable German trade statistics for the period preceding the German political unifica- tion is not a fatality. The documents published during the Zollverein period by the Central Bureau of the Zollverein, the Statistische Uebersichten über Waaren- Verkehr und Zoll-Ertrag im Deutschen Zoll-Vereine für das Jahr..., do not provide prices nor trade flows in value nor any indication of countries of ultimate origin and destination. To overcome these imperfections, a great number of estimates of Zollverein trade statistics have been published since 1842 but they are ques- tionable as well. Nevertheless, the good quality of Statistische Übersichten’s quantity data should make possible the reconstruction of consistent series of German trade, total, by product and in value, over the period 1834-1871

Reverse engineering of model transformations for reusability

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08789-4_14Proceedings of 7th International Conference, ICMT 2014, Held as Part of STAF 2014, York, UK, July 21-22, 2014Reuse techniques are key for the industrial adoption of Model-Driven Engineering (MDE). However, while reusability has been successfully applied to programming languages, its use is scarce in MDE and, in particular, in model transformations. In previous works, we developed an approach that enables the reuse of model transformations for different meta-models. This is achieved by defining reusable components that encapsulate a generic transformation template and expose an interface called concept declaring the structural requirements that any meta-model using the component should fulfil. Binding the concept to one of such meta-models induces an adaptation of the template, which becomes applicable to the meta-model. To facilitate reuse, concepts need to be concise, reflecting only the minimal set of requirements demanded by the transformation. In this paper, we automate the reverse engineering of existing transformations into reusable transformation components. To make a transformation reusable, we use the information obtained from its static analysis to derive a concept that is minimal with respect to the transformation and maximizes its reuse opportunities, and then evolve the transformation accordingly. The paper describes a prototype implementation and an evaluation using transformations from the ATL zoo.This work has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity with project “Go Lite” (TIN2011-24139

An automatic architecture reconstruction and refactoring framework

A variety of sources have noted that a substantial proportion of non trivial software systems fail due to unhindered architectural erosion. This design deterioration leads to low maintainability, poor testability and reduced development speed. The erosion of software systems is often caused by inadequate understanding, documentation and maintenance of the desired implementation architecture. If the desired architecture is lost or the deterioration is advanced, the reconstruction of the desired architecture and the realignment of this desired architecture with the physical architecture both require substantial manual analysis and implementation effort. This paper describes the initial development of a framework for automatic software architecture reconstruction and source code migration. This framework offers the potential to reconstruct the conceptual architecture of software systems and to automatically migrate the physical architecture of a software system toward a conceptual architecture model. The approach is implemented within a proof of concept prototype which is able to analyze java system and reconstruct a conceptual architecture for these systems as well as to refactor the system towards a conceptual architecture

An ISO-based Quality Model for Evaluating Mobile Medical Speech Translators

Medical translation systems present an intriguing research area as language barriers can become life-threatening when health issues come into place. There is however a lack of common evaluation techniques, making the fair comparison of such systems a difficult task. In this work we try to remedy this deficiency by proposing a quality model based on the ISO/IEC 9126 standard that could serve as a comparison basis among homologous systems. We focus on the mobile world believing that it suits patients’ needs better, as they experience diverse scenarios along the pathway to healthcare. Our work involves the definition of the quality characteristics of the model along with the quantification of their importance based on two target groups of users (12 doctors and 12 potential patients) that demonstrate different needs and goals towards the system

Heterogeneity of glucagonomas due to differential processing of proglucagon-derived peptides

Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (pNETs) secreting proglucagon are associated with phenotypic heterogeneity. Here, we describe two patients with pNETs and varied clinical phenotypes due to differential processing and secretion of proglucagon-derived peptides (PGDPs). Case 1, a 57-year-old woman presented with necrolytic migratory erythema, anorexia, constipation and hyperinsulinaemic hypoglycaemia. She was found to have a grade 1 pNET, small bowel mucosal thickening and hyperglucagonaemia. Somatostatin analogue (SSA) therapy improved appetite, abolished hypoglycaemia and improved the rash. Case 2, a 48-year-old male presented with diabetes mellitus, diarrhoea, weight loss, nausea, vomiting and perineal rash due to a grade 1 metastatic pNET and hyperglucagonaemia. In both cases, plasma levels of all measured PGDPs were elevated and attenuated following SSA therapy. In case 1, there was increased production of intact glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) and GLP-2, similar to that of the enteroendocrine L cell. In case 2, pancreatic glucagon was elevated due to a pancreatic α-cell-like proglucagon processing profile. In summary, we describe two patients with pNETs and heterogeneous clinical phenotypes due to differential processing and secretion of PGDPs. This is the first description of a patient with symptomatic hyperinsulinaemic hypoglycaemia and marked gastrointestinal dysfunction due to, in part, a proglucagon-expressing pNET. LEARNING POINTS: PGDPs exhibit a diverse range of biological activities including critical roles in glucose and amino acid metabolism, energy homeostasis and gastrointestinal physiology. The clinical manifestations of proglucagon-expressing tumours may exhibit marked phenotypic variation due to the biochemical heterogeneity of their secreted peptide repertoire. Specific and precise biochemical assessment of individuals with proglucagon-expressing tumours may provide opportunities for improved diagnosis and clinical management